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HASTINGS — Since 1942, Thanksgiving has been celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, thus ranging in date from the Nov. 22-28, prior to 1942, it was often observed on the last Thursday of November.
As is typical of the late-fall season in south central Nebraska, Thanksgiving weather conditions can vary dramatically from one year to the next. Just in the last 30 years, high temperatures in Grand Island have ranged from 31 to 72 degrees, and lows have ranged from six to 39 degrees.
Temperatures: According to the entire period of record, the warmest Thanksgiving occurred seven years ago in 2017 with a balmy high of 72 degrees, while the coldest low temperature was a frigid minus four degrees in 1938. Only 16-of-129 Thanksgivings on record (12%) have featured high temperatures of 60 degrees-or-warmer, but half of them have occurred within the last 27 years.
However, there have also been plenty of legitimately cold Thanksgivings in recent years, including five years ago in 2019 and four-consecutive ones from 2013-2016 that failed to reach 40 degrees. As for truly bone-chilling cold, Thanksgivings in 1985 (high 14 degrees /low three degrees) and 1993 (high of 16 degrees /low one degree) stand out among the most frigid of the last several decades.
Precipitation/Snowfall: As for liquid precipitation equivalent (which includes any melted snowfall), measurable amounts of 0.01 inches-or-more have occurred in 19-of-129 years, or only 15% of the time.
In the last 30 years, measurable precipitation has only fallen twice (2019/2015). Measurable Thanksgiving snow (at least 0.1 inches) has been quite rare on the holiday itself, with only 10 instances on record, most recently 2019.
The 3.2 inches that fell nine years ago in 2015 actually marked the third snowiest-Thanksgiving on record, falling slightly short of the 4.0 inches measured in 1931 and 1919.
However, when including the entire “Thanksgiving weekend” as part of the holiday, 1983 certainly stands out: while Thanksgiving itself on the Nov. 24 was seasonable and dry, a significant snowfall of 13.6 inches piled up between the Nov. 26-27.
2023 Thanksgiving Recap: Thanksgiving 2023 was a fairly typical, seasonably-chilly (but not overly-cold) late-November day. Somewhat oddly, the calendar-day high temperature of 42 degrees actually occurred shortly after midnight (extremely early in the “climate day”) and the calendar-day low of 25 degrees actually occurred just prior to midnight that night (extremely late in the “climate day”).
The actual daytime/afternoon high temperature only reached 39 degrees, but it felt colder due to brisk north-northeast winds commonly sustained 15-20 mph/gusting 20-30 mph. The day started out mostly sunny, but increasing high level clouds gradually invaded with time.
